Bachelor Nation Investigation: Who is to blame for champagnegate?

Champagnegate dominated Monday’s episode of The Bachelor, but who was at fault for the chaos?

Champagnegate was so much fun. It provided enough drama to get us through an early season episode and also lit the internet up with Bachelor gifs for the rest of the season. This is peak Bachelor, before we care about the love stories.

It’s also the subject of this week’s Bachelor Nation Investigation — we’re getting to the bottom of the bottle that is champagnegate.

Inquiry: Who is to blame for champagnegate?

Who was the root cause of champagnegate? Kelsey was both the victim and the aggressor. Hannah Ann was the culprit, but was somehow innocent, and production, who could have intervened, also can’t directly be blamed for the events that transpired.

For today and today only, we’ll give Chris Harrison a pass. He was likely involved somehow, but seemed to be hiding in his den while the drama went down. To anyone who needs a reminder, Kelsey brought a very special bottle of champagne all way from Iowa, left it unattended by a fireplace (?), where it was discovered, opened and shared by Hannah Ann and Peter. Chaos and memes ensued.

https://twitter.com/itsamandagrrl/status/1216949199633174530

Facts, findings and further evidence

Mykenna

Hey! You leave the Canadian alone! She is a national treasure! All Mykenna wanted to do was quietly go about drinking her maple syrup and saying her daily “I’m sorrys” like the rest of us. Mykenna was dragged into this by Kelsey for taking up time with Pete but judging by what she had with her, it was time well spent.

While we’re on the topic, can we stop with the Mykenna negativity? She isn’t the guy from YOU, she isn’t Luke P. and she isn’t going to stop having sweet make-out seshes with Pete, no matter how much you tweet about her. Everyone is assuming she’s going to be a villain at some point but she has been nothing short of fabulous.

Tonight was one of those nights — Mykenna is cleared of any wrong-doing.

Hannah Ann

Hannah Ann serves as the accused in champagnegate. Technically, by the letter of the law, she was the at-fault party. That said, she was clearly set up to fail. In a Making A Murderer-style twist, production (dirty cops) put her at the scene of the crime and fabricated all the evidence they needed to send her to trial (getting dragged by Kelsey stans on Twitter).

Hannah Ann doesn’t owe anything to Kelsey after the way Kelsey handled the situation, and she realized this. Champagnegate lit a fire under her that fueled her to be the MVP of episode 2. From the shade thrown at the post-rose ceremony toast, to her runway wedding dress preview for Pete, she has Pete by the… corkscrew? What’s a good champagne sexual innuendo? (She also has $20,000 of new Revolve clothing, which I’m told is good.)

This was definitely not Hannah’s fault.

Kelsey

Is it a crime to overreact? Put yourself in Kelsey’s shoes. It’s been a long, hard day and someone took away the ONE thing you had been looking forward to. Are you actually mad at them? Probably not, but that anger has to be directed somewhere.

Any married couple knows this type of anger. Something as simple as a bite of your significant other’s grilled cheese can lead to a night on the couch under the wrong circumstances. Kelsey’s misdirected anger towards Hannah Ann should have been directed at the producers, who we all know are more responsible for this mess than she is (more on that in a minute).

Kelsey could have handled the situation much better post-champagnegate, though. In her ABC bio, Kelsey said she’s “not looking for drama.” A few lines later, she notes that she is feisty and stubborn. She basically told us this would happen before the show even started.

Shockingly, champagnegate was not Kelsey’s doing.

Pete

Nah, he’s clear.

Production 

Obviously, right? The producers knew about the bottle and its significance. The camera and audio crew witnessed Kelsey setting up the champagne next to the fireplace. Chris Harrison was probably nudging Hannah Ann away from the other champagne set up and towards Kelsey’s (unconfirmed).

While you may be quick to point fingers at those behind the lenses, it wasn’t actually their fault. As Dustin and Ashley point out in this week’s episode of Can I Steal You For a Second?, the production crew is there to produce great television. Champagnegate was just that. Great television.

Had they stepped in, we wouldn’t have seen an hour of classic Bachelor drama, we may not have seen more of sassy Hannah Ann and we surely wouldn’t have gotten the gif of the season. If anything, we should be thanking production.

Which brings us to the real culprit.

Verdict

The viewers

Go find a mirror. Now, take a good hard look at yourself. You did this! You’re so bad.

Bachelor Nation, this is on us. We are but a group of thirsty theos, sipping on glasses of dramatic television like Kelsey sips on full bottles of champagne. Who are we to complain when it blows up in our faces? We created this monster that is Bachelor drama and we love every minute of it.

Champagnegate was our doing, and honestly, we should all be congratulating each other for it.

The Bachelor airs Mondays at 8:00 p.m. ET on ABC.